Majority of KU students support a zero alcohol limit for young drivers

Half of UK motorists said they supported a zero alcohol limit for young drivers and KU students agree.

Emma Piercy

Of 2,000 UK motorists who responded to a Gocompare.com survey, 50 per cent backed a zero alcohol limit for young drivers and 49 per cent said they agreed with engine size restrictions for newly licensed drivers.

In a survey conducted amongst KU students, 76 per cent said they agreed with a total alcohol ban on young drivers, which would replace the current legal limit of 80mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood.

Radical change

The comparison website survey results revealed that UK drivers feel the need for a radical change in drink driving laws. Other new restrictions were supported: 28 per cent agreed with a curfew for novice drivers and 34 per cent supported a ban on inexperienced drivers carrying passengers in their cars.

Haura Aldjayashi, a 19-year-old pharmacy student said: “I would put all drink drivers in jail. I definitely support a no alcohol limit. Too many innocent people are dying because of people who carelessly drink and drive.”

Young male drivers

In 2011, provisional figures showed that 280 people were killed, 1,290 were seriously injured and there was a total of almost 10,000 casualties in drinking and driving accidents.

A spokesman for Gocompare.com said that 17 to 20-year-old young male drivers were 10 times more likely to end up in a fatal accident or be seriously injured while driving than more experienced drivers, and their insurance claims were likely to be three times higher.

In support of the zero alcohol ban, Omar Al-Dabbagh, a 22-year-old engineering student said: “From a safety perspective, it would force people to drink less. It would be an effective measure because a lot of the time when people just mean to have one pint and stick to the limits, it can easily lead to another.”

Zero alcohol ban

In its 2012 drinking and driving policy statement, The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) said that it did not believe that a lower drink drive limit for young drivers was a feasible measure in Britain, partly because enforcing a separate limit for a specific group of drivers would require the police to check the driver’s age (or licence status), and drivers were not required to carry their driving licence in Britain.

“No one would follow a zero alcohol ban. Young people don’t follow the current drink driving laws anyway,” said Nivetha Vijayakumar, 20, a civil engineering student.

“I think it would be more effective if there was more security and police to look out for intoxicated drivers on the roads,” she added.